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Literature Matters - Literature - British Council - Arts

Patricia Duncker teaches on the godfather of UK creative writing courses – the MA at the University of East Anglia. Here she offers behind the scenes insights into a course that boasts the glitziest alumni in the UK, including Trezza Azzopardi and Ian McEwan. Meanwhile, novelist and editor Jill Dawson, a former student on the Sheffield Hallam Creative Writing MA who has gone on to achieve great things, writes about how she felt studying creative writing affected her work.   

The teaching of creative writing comes in many different shapes and sizes. In a bold and innovative move to reach the widest and most diverse of communities, trAce director Sue Thomas writes about her organisations challenging internet based creative writing projects. Writer, critic and creative writing tutor Russell Celyn Jones explores the different approaches to the teaching of creative writing in the US and what the UK can learn from it all.    

David Flusfeder explores the financial relationship between teaching creative writing and the artistic practise itself. Going where most writers are too scared to go, he boldly questions the existence of these courses. Novelist David Peace is less than convinced by the proponents of creative writing courses. Read some interesting advice on alternative options and a different approach to producing that prize-winning novel.    

In a round up of three of the British Council’s most pioneering and adventurous projects, Graham Mort looks at the challenges of cross-cultural distance learning. Kamila Shamsie discusses a multi-nation creative writing project, beginning in Pakistan and continuing on to Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East and Danila Beloglavec tells of how they’re animating their literature, their readers and their writers in Slovenia.   

In our regular feature on who’s reading what, four of the UK’s sparkiest and shiniest literary lights share their recent literary leanings with us. Read about what Louise Doughty, Maggie Gee, Michael Holroyd and Courttia Newland have recently been inspired by.   

Ian Sansom is a recent immigrant to Northern Ireland, and delighted to be surrounded by a wealth of literary talent. Here he shares with us his thoughts on the great and the good of Northern Irish writing, from the early 20th century through to the early 21st century.    

Ackroyd, Peter – Chatto & Windus 2004 £15.99 ISBN 0-701-17744-6 HBK

Adebayo, Diran Morrison, Blake Rogers, Jane – Vintage 2003 £8.99 ISBN 0-330-48598-9 PBK

Atwood, Margaret – Virago 1990 £6.99 ISBN 1-8538-1126-2 PBK

Azzopardi, Trezza – Picador 2004 £16.99 ISBN 0-330-49345-0 HBK

Baddiel, David – Little Brown 2004 £16.99 ISBN 0-316-85931-1 HBK

Barnes, Julian – Cape 2004 £16.99 ISBN 0-224-07198-X HBK

Bateman, Colin – Harper Collins 2001 £6.99 ISBN 0-00-651379-4 PBK

Bateman, Colin – Headline 2004 £6.99 ISBN 0-7553-0921-9 PBK

Beard, Richard – Secker & Warburg 2004 £10.99 ISBN 0-436-27738-7 HBK

Hal Zina Bennett – New World Library 2001 £11.99 PBK

Boylan, Clare – Abacus 2004 £6.99 ISBN 0-349-11672-5  PBK

Carter, Ronald & McRae, John – Routledge 2003 £8.99 ISBN 0-415-28637-9 PBK

Cartwright, Julian – Bloomsbury 2004 £16.99 ISBN 0-7475-7034-5 HBK

Charles, Paul – Do-Not Press 2004 £7.99 ISBN 1-904316-33-6 PBK

Charles, Paul – Do-Not Press 2002 £7.50 ISBN 1-904316-02-6 PBK

Charles, Paul – Do-Not Press 1998 £7.00 ISBN 1-899344-30-6  PBK

Clamp, Paula – Poolbeg Press 2003 £ 6.99 ISBN 1-84223-090-5 PBK

Conrad, Joseph – Oxford University Press 2002 £1.50 ISBN 0-19-280172-4 PBK

Dawson, Jill – Sceptre 1997 £7.99 ISBN0-340-65383-3 PBK

Dawson, Jill – Sceptre 2004 £6.99 ISBN 0-340-83319-X PBK

Louis de Bernières – Secker & Warburg £17.99 ISBN 0-436-20549-1 HBK

Dunmore, Helen – Penguin 2004 £5.99 ISBN 0-14-101756-2 PBK

Enisuoh, Andrea & Ross, Jacob – Black Inc. 2004 £6.99 ISBN 0-9530195-4-3 PBK

Gee, Maggie – Saqi 2004 £12.99 ISBN 0-86356-315-5 HBK

Ghosh, Amitav – Harper Collins 2004 £17.99 ISBN 0-00-714177-7 HBK

Harris, Robert – Hutchinson 2004 £17.99 ISBN 0-09-177925-1 HBK

Helwig, Maggie – Chatto & Windus 2004 £12.99 ISBN 0-701-17691-1 HBK

Hensher , Philip – Fourth Estate 2004 £15.99 ISBN 0-00-717481-0 HBK

Hoggart, Richard – Penguin 1999 £22.95 ISBN 0-7658-0421-2 PBK

Hollinghurst , Alan – Picador 2004 £16.99 ISBN 0-330-48320-X HBK

Hughes, Richard – Vintage 2002 £6.99 ISBN 0-09-943743-0 PBK

Jacobson, Howard – Cape 2004 £16.99 ISBN 0-224-07352-4 HBK

Jensen, Liz – Bloomsbury 2004 £16.99 ISBN 0-7475-7106-6 HBK

Kelman, James – Vintage 2004 £7.99 ISBN 0-7493-9883-3 PBK

Keyes, Marian – Michael Joseph 2004 £12.99 ISBN 0-7181-4467-8 HBK

Kureishi, Hanif – Faber & Faber 1998 £7.99 ISBN 0-571-19234-3 PBK

Le Carré, John – Hodder & Stoughton 2004 £18.99 ISBN 0-340-83287-8 HBK

Leitch, Maurice – Vintage 2001 £6.99 ISBN 0-09-942225-5 PBK

Leitch, Maurice – The Blackstaff Press 1985 £5.99 ISBN 0-8564-0332-6 PBK

Leitch, Maurice – The Blackstaff Press 1995 £6.99 ISBN 0-7493-9658-X  PBK

Leitch, Maurice – Quartet Books 1977 £7.50 ISBN 0-70433-167-5 PBK

Litt, Toby – Penguin 2004 £7.99 ISBN 0-14-100654-4 PBK

Mantel, Hilary – Perennial 2004 £7.99 ISBN 0-00-717288-5 PBK

Mantel, Hilary – Penguin Books 1987 £5.99 ISBN 0-14-009780-5 PBK

Matson, Clive – New World Library 1998 £11.99 ISBN 1-880032-35-X PBK

McDiarmid, Val – Harper Collins 2004 £17.99 ISBN 0-00-714288-9 HBK

McEwan, Ian – Vintage 1997 £6.99 ISBN 0-09-975501-7 PBK

McGrath, Patrick – Bloomsbury 2004 £16.99 ISBN 0-7457-7019-1 HBK

McKinty, Adrian – Serpent’s Tail 2004 £11.99 ISBN 1-85242-847-3 PBK

MacLaverty, Bernard – Vintage 1998 £6.99 ISBN 0-09-976711-2 PBK

McNamee, Eoin – Faber & Faber 2004 £7.99 ISBN 0-571-22177-7 PBK

McNamee, Eoin – Faber & Faber 2004 £10.99 ISBN 0-571-20775-8 PBK

Middlebrook, Diane Wood – Little Brown 2004 £20.00 ISBN 0-316-85992-3 HBK

Miller, Jane – Vintage 2004 £7.99 ISBN 0-09-945349-5 PBK

Morrison, Toni – Vintage 1997 £6.99 ISBN 0-09-976011-8 PBK

Murdoch, Iris – Vintage 2003 £7.99 ISBN 0-09-943354-0 PBK

Park, David – Bloomsbury 2004 £14.99 ISBN 0-7475-7036-1 HBK

Patterson, Glenn – Penguin 2004 £6.99 ISBN 0-141-01103-3 PBK

Patterson, Glenn – Hamish Hamilton 2004 £16.99 ISBN 0-241-14195-8 HBK

Peace, David – Faber 2004 £12.99 ISBN 0-571-21445-2 HBK

Radcliffe, Zane – Bantam 2002 £5.99 ISBN 0-552-77095-7 PBK

Reid, Forrest – Brilliance Books 1987 £3.50 ISBN 0-946189-27-7 PBK

Rhia, Reshma S. – Black Amber Books 2003 £7.99 ISBN 1-901969-14-2 PBK

Ross, Jacob – Mango Publishing 1999 £8.99 ISBN 1-902294-08-4 PBK

Seiffert, Rachel – William Heinemann 2004 £12.99 ISBN 0-434-01185-1 HBK

Sinclair, Iain – (or, ) Hamish Hamilton 2004 £16.99 ISBN 0-241-14236-9 HBK

Smith, Dodie – Vintage 2004 £5.99 ISBN 0-09-946087-4 PBK

Stothard, Anna – Arrow £6.99 ISBN 0-09-944332-5 PBK

Swift, Graham – Picador 1996 £6.99 ISBN 0-330-33632-0 PBK

Tóibín, Colm – Picador 2004 £15.99 ISBN 0-330-48565-2 HBK

Tomelty, Joseph – The Blackstaff Press 1996 £4.50 ISBN 0-856-40286-9 PBK

Tomelty, Joseph – The Blacktaff Press 1983 £5.65 ISBN 0-856-40299-0 PBK

Trapido, Barbara – Bloomsbury 2004 £6.99 ISBN 0-7475-6814-6 PBK

Trevor, William – Viking 2004 £16.99 ISBN 0-670-91507-6 HBK

Vine, Barbara – Penguin Books 2003 £5.99 ISBN 0-141-01370-2 PBK

Warner, Sylvia Townsend – New York Review of Books Press 2001 £2.36 ISBN 0-940-32283-8 PBK

West, Tara – The Blackstaff Press 2002 £7.99 ISBN 0-856-40729-1 PBK

Wilde, Oscar – Oxford University Press 1999 £5.99 ISBN 0-19-283961-6 PBK

Wilson, A. N. – Hutchinson 2004 £16,99 ISBN 0-09-179539-4 HBK

Wilson, Robert McLiam – Minerva 1997 £6.99 ISBN 0-7493-9672-5 PBK

Wilson, Robert McLiam – Minerva 1997 £6.99 ISBN 0-7493-9465-X PBK

A&C Black 2005 £13.99 ISBN 0-7136-6936-5 PBK

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